China is tapping into a 500 BC source of energy that is far older than oil and gas. Tracing the historical trajectory of energy usage and production helps us see that China was at the forefront of the energy game in the past, too. Although the origins of energy production can be traced to the mid-19th century oil boom or the use of coal during the Industrial Revolution, further evidence points towards ancient Persia or the natural oil seeps of Baku described by Marco Polo. According to new findings and historical analysis, it seems as if China, too, has been looking into energy sources as far back as 500 BC, which was centuries before formal oil wells were drilled.
Tracing the roots of energy innovation
China’s need to produce energy can even be traced to when China drilled the world’s first oil wells in 347 CE. The wells that China drilled reached depths of up to 240 meters and were made using bamboo poles as drill stems. In the process, the oil would evaporate the brine for salt production, which was transported via extensive bamboo pipelines. The networks of oil transportation stretched across regions, showing technical excellence from as soon as the 10th century.
While China seemed to be steps ahead in the energy game back then, evidence shows other countries may have also been leading energy innovation. As early as the 7th century, Japan had found some form of petroleum. Whereas in the 9th century in the Middle East, Persian alchemist Rhazes distilled crude oil into kerosene. The 19th century was when all the modern oils started to be drilled across North America and Eastern Europe.
While all these energy advancements were great, they were still two millennia after China’s groundbreaking energy breakthrough, which is not well known.
Understand what happens when nature meets engineering
The impressive use of natural gas around 500 BC in the Sichuan province came at a time when most of the word hadn’t even conceptualized the extraction of underground gases, Chinese engineers seemed to already be drilling for natural gas and using it for heat and light. The energy was not something to marvel at, it was the infrastructure used that was worth marveling at.
The truth is that they used bamboo. China did not just use bamboo for scaffolding or tools, but as the full-fledged pipeline system for natural gas. Bamboo is a lightweight and durable material that is naturally occurring but had many other qualities that made it best for early engineering feats. At the time of use, bamboo tubes played the function of pipelines that extracted gas from the wells.
The drills were also made utilizing bamboo with sharpened ends. Some of these ancient tools were rotated manually or by teams of workers, allowing for surprisingly deep penetration into gas-rich areas beneath the Earth’s surface. This system can thus be known as the oldest known oil wells by nearly a millennium. To date, China still hides the holy grail of energy.
An ancient innovation of magic gas
Majority of the gas extraction occurred in the Sichuan Basin, a geologically rich region because of its history as a dried-up sea. Li Bing is the same engineer who created the Dujiangyan Irrigation System. This system allows natural gas to be primarily used to fuel flames for evaporating brine in salt production, which was a key commodity in ancient China. The blue flame of natural gas seemed somewhat magical, but became a rather practical tool.
Knowing that one of the oldest known energy systems was built not with steel or oil rigs, but with bamboo, is a humbling reminder that necessity surely leads to invention, especially in China, where they are now turning trillion liters of water into energy.
